Today there was a volunteer from the U of M who is majoring in math education in the room. We were playing a game in groups of four during second period, which is the kids that are in the intervention math program. He is sitting with one of the groups and playing the game.
It's not really important what the game is, but it had to do with visualizing fraction pieces and using benchmarks to add two fractions together. For example, a group flips over two cards that have a fraction on each one. Using a number line as a visual cue, they decide if each fraction is closest to zero, one or two. Once they have decided that for the two fractions, they add the whole number estimations together to get an estimated sum. The point was benchmarking fractions when estimating using 0, 1, and 2 instead of actually calculating. A mental picture thing.
When the kids gave the answers, the voluteer was suppose to ask them how they came to that answer. If they didn't kow, he was suppose to "think aloud" by saying things like "1/8 is closest to 0, and 15/16 is closest to 1. So, we add 0+1 and we get 1. We can estimate that 1/8 + 15/16 is pretty close to one." Instead, he kept having the kids calculate the answers! Ugh. I'd model for him what I wanted him to do, he'd nod like yeah yeah, and he still didn't do it. He's going to be a freaking math teacher, and he can't even listen! He frustrated me to no end. And, I got the feeling that he didn't like me tellinghim what to do. Twenties something woman, ya know. Maybe I am overreacting to that, but it sure felt that way.
Then, to top it off, we were keeping scores for as people got correct estimations. One student was bragging, chanting, and being rude about beating the other people at his table. I said, "Hey, when you play basketball and win or lose, do you get all up in the other teams face yelling and screaming?" The kid paused and the volunteer, this so called teacher with all this experience, said "Yeah, that's a given." Of course, that just egged the student right on. He got twice as loud! Unbelievable. How disrespectful is that?